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Digging vs Brushing
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Miguel de Maria
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
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Digging vs Brushing
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Wanted to share some thoughts on guitar technique in general. I remember Jerzy (an excellent player who used to post here) said that all guitar techniques should feel like "brushing" the guitar. At the time, it struck me as very unusual, because that was not my experience at all. Picados felt like clawing or pulling, rasgueados felt like flicking a fairly hard surface, and arpeggios felt like pulling or digging. So I just kind of filed the comment away (as you should if someone who is a lot better than you says something). More recently, I read a book about natural talent for piano players, called The Pianist's Talent by Harold Taylor. The author analyzed "naturally talented" prodigies, by their pictures, various recollections and studies, and the writings of a teacher named Thiberge. He tabulated quite a few interesting observations. One of them is that great pianists always adjusted their chairs Down. So what? Well, if you have played keyboard, it might be your experience that you want to be more Above the keyboard. It gives you a sense of more control, and of being able to use gravity more easily to get more weight on the keys. Most people, then would adjust their chairs Up, yet the great players, the prodigies and true masters, adjust it Down. Taylor and Thiberge (the teacher) deduced from that, that it is in fact a principle of great playing, of effortless and masterful playing, that it should be from a lower position. Furthermore, there must obviously be something very different in terms of mental imagery or mechanistic process, that the virtuosos are doing. Their conclusion was that virtuosos play "up", while hackers play "down." In other words, my inclination on the keyboard to press down and get more leverage was incorrect, and not conducive to optimal technique. They teach that you should visualize that the keyboard is very high. That will lighten your touch and change your physical attitude to the instrument. So on to guitar. The more I thought about this, I wondered if there was an analogue between this revelation on the piano and guitar technique. It goes without saying that 99% of guitarists are doing it wrong, no doubt myself included. I decided to try to play the guitar "up", to metaphorically adjust my chair "down." On the guitar, I think this means that you don't do what is natural to most people, to attempt to get a mechanical advantage by pushing inwards, or "digging in" on the strings. I decided to attempt to get power by lightening up. As a consequence, I found my fingers straightening, and the attack on the strings becoming simpler. I started to brush. To my surprise, I found that this way, for picado, I could play fast and with great projection with little effort. If you think about what it means to "dig in", that usually connotes a muscular motion of clawing at the strings. Try to visualize the path of the string and see how much of that force actually gets translated into the soundboard, and how much is just stretching or attacking it without actually adding to the volume. It is said that Sabicas could play very powerfully with little apparent effort...maybe this is part of how he did it. Paco's method "looks" very muscular and effort-intensive, but it almost surely is not. It goes back to what Ron has pointed out many times--the string is an almost weightless, thin piece of nylon. It really doesn't offer that much resistance if played correctly. You don't need a lot of muscle to make it zing, you just have to find the right angle and motion. I think that playing "up", and "brushing" can help you find that motion.
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Date Dec. 18 2005 15:33:25
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XXX
Posts: 4400
Joined: Apr. 14 2005
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RE: Digging vs Brushing (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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Hm Ive just deleted some lines which made it only more complicated, I hope ill be able to cut it short and understandable. I agree on every point that Miguel says, but: - comparisons with paco should not be made. Hes playing 8hours a day since 4th year. Maybe he played different with more effort and muscle, when he started, but surely TODAY I would trust him if he says that he plays with null effort. Drawing the conclusion from that that one should practise with minimum effort may be misleading, though I would agree that one should not be too uncomfortable when playing. - If someone practises 8 hours a day, he does not need that much advice, coz his technique will develop very fast anyway, with or without advice. Its evolution. Taking lessons, buying books can accelerate it, but someone who a) has 8 hours a day may not need to accelerate anything and b) he will improve quite soon anyway. Me for example has stopped making a philosophy out of guitar playing, but started practising my picado at 60bpm/quarters and only pay attention to volume and snappiness/attack. Can someone send an email to Paco? I need an advice from him Maybe he can drop some comments on here, as Al does in his forum. What was that point there?
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Date Dec. 19 2005 0:35:52
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Skai
Posts: 317
Joined: Sep. 12 2004
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RE: Digging vs Brushing (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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Here's a lesson learnt during one of my classical guitar lessons. I played normally, some gripping with my nails. So my teacher said, "No! Not hard enough! Louder!" So I was trying my best to increase the volume to her level. Impossible! So I asked her why I needed to play so hard, it's ridiculously loud and not 'classical-like'. Simple reason. You start off practising as loud as you can and stretch all the way to the limits. This builds up strength and also your ability to play hard and loud. After a certain period of practice, I won't have to play at such streneous level anymore because I'd be used to playing at a good volume even while I'm relaxed. And yet when the need comes, I can play much louder! As she said, "If you can play loud, you can play soft. But if you can only play soft, then you won't get your playing much louder." This applies to picado, rasgueado, alzapua, tremolo and probably any other technique you can think of. Maybe this would be a useful learning advice that you could take into consideration. I certainly feel it makes complete sense and I'm going to continue with this practice method. That being said, it also does not mean that dynamics and tone should be overlooked, a balance has to be found. Cheston
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Date Dec. 19 2005 15:56:13
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Miguel de Maria
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
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RE: Digging vs Brushing (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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Cheston, I think there are two sides to this issue. One of the things is that I have incurred hand injuries because of too much technical work, and when you are attacking hard without knowing what you are doing, it seems obvious that the danger of that increases. On the other hand, during the times that I have played in groups, I have felt the need to play a lot more aggressively to compete, and it has made me stronger and led to the ability to play with more volume. A lot of musicians in different genres will say that they don't really reach their peak abilities until some serious gigging for a few weeks to whip them in shape. But my original post is not so much about volume, but about the place where power and fluency meet. In my opinion, each is useless without the other. A guitarist who can flit lightly like a butterfly up and down the fingerboard without any oomph is just as lame as a guy who plays one note, but really hard, per measure. I have always been interested in the metaphorical ways or images that can get you to play properly. This is all a teacher can do, imo, try a bunch of ways to get you to learn the right way yourself. That is even assuming that the teacher really knows what he is talking about, right? When I listen to Paco play, he plays so hard and fast that my instinctual reaction is to clench up tightly as if I were lifting a really heavy dumbell. Although my natural reaction, I highly doubt it leads to the effect I want. My feeling is that Paco probably feels very relaxed and it probably feels effortless, like brushing. I also would guess this is a combination of a certain muscular strength he has developed, with a highly honed and efficient technique. As Jamie Andreas pointed out, and I paraphrase, "For the good players, it doesn't feel the same way to do a particular technique as it feels when you do it. If it felt that way to them, if they were really doing it like you were doing it, then they wouldn't be able to do what they are doing."
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Date Dec. 19 2005 16:13:57
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